Cliffhangers
by Muse-of-Love-Chibi-Akemi
Summary: [One shot] An innocent game of Mario Party turns into a fight for life. LuigiDaisy fic. Slight MarioPeach.


A/N: No I do not own any of the Nintendo characters or the mini games played in Mario Party. Heck, if I owned the franchise there would already be a Luigi themed game by now where he gets his princess (holds up sign "Luisy fangirl!") Luisy is my name for Luigi and Daisy. Luigi's Mansion you say? Too short and made Luigi look like the wimp he so isn't! So um, yeah my first fanfic and one shot. So uh, yeah! Here we go!

* * *

**Cliffhangers**

Maybe it wasn't the best day for such a mini game? Maybe perhaps Mario and Peach should have picked a different day for the party? Or did they know what was going to happen and what would come out of it? Either way, the party happened on Toad's Midway Mayhem. Mario and Peach had challenged Luigi and Daisy to a team party match. What Luigi and Daisy didn't know was that this was a setup for something to happen. Something that Mario and Peach hoped would happen between the younger brother and desert princess.

"Come on Mario! Roll that die!" Peach was heard calling out to Mario on the second last turn of the game.

Mario rolled his dice, about ten spaces away from the star that would assure his and Peach's first place rank. Luigi was just a couple of spaces behind him and Daisy was ahead of the star but had a Boo Crystal Ball in her hands, ready to use the final turn.

It was a two. Mario walked in dismay onto blue space but was quickly perked up by the six coins he received.

Luigi, behind Mario, pulled out his Mini Hammer item and used it to bop Mario on the head. Next turn, Mario would be mini. He could at least delay him from getting the star. He then rolled his die.

"Luigi you can do it!" Daisy shouted to him and waved her arms in encouragement. She punched the sky with her right arm enthusiastically.

Daisy sure is a tomboy, Luigi thought to himself as the die rolled. It was a five. Looking ahead, Luigi shook his head not wanting to move the six spaces but moved on ahead. Like Mario, his coins changed by six but they weren't increasing. They were decreasing. All the way down until he had nothing left.

He looked to Daisy and saw the disappointed look on her face. She tried to grin back to Luigi, trying to tell him it was all right but the fact of losing to Peach made her heart feel bitter. Daisy always wanted to show everyone that the princess of Sarasaland was at the least just as good as the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Luigi wanted to prove to Daisy he wasn't the down on his luck guy he thought she looked at him as. Someone as beautiful as Daisy, in his mind, had plenty of suitors that were better suited for the noble life. He grinned back at her trying to agree with whatever she was thinking. Yeah, he thought, I am someone worth pitying and patting on the head saying 'Oh it's okay, better luck next time'.

And so the mini game was to start. Before the randomization began, Toad had exploded into laughter and brought out another roulette. "A Lucky Mini-Game!" he announced cheerfully to the two teams. "The amount of coins to be rewarded will be…" Everyone watched carefully as the giant roulette bounced between times two, times three and times one. Mario, Peach, Luigi and Daisy all widened their eyes when the ball landed on times three.

Mario and Peach did not need the coins but they could win the game so that they could stop Luigi and Daisy from attaining the coins that they need to get the Star and steal one of theirs. The opponents looked to each other full of worry as the mini-game was being picked.

Cliffhangers.

The name of the game sent shivers up Luigi's spine and that wasn't because the game took place on a snowy mountain climb either! He was always afraid of falling and maybe perhaps breaking his back. Daisy was all for it though. The sportier the event the better! She smiled over to Luigi and then it disappeared. Her partner had the look of worry written all over his face.

"It'll be all right Luigi." She told him as they were transported to the mini-game. Their climbing equipment was already equipped on them and ready to go.

Luigi looked down, always remembering that the game started halfway up the mountain. The goal was to be the first ones up the mountain. Mario and Peach stood ready to start climbing and were waiting for Luigi and Daisy.

"You two ready?" Mario asked worried about Luigi and how Daisy might react to his younger brother's hesitation to this particular mini-game.

Luigi's eyes were closed as he nodded repetitively. He dug his ice picks into the mountain and looked up. It was certainly a long climb. Daisy dug her own ice picks into the mountain and nodded to Mario. "Yep we're ready!" she said to him. Luigi gulped and added, "I think."

"Yeah I'm ready!" Luigi yelled out and looked to Toad. "Say go already!" he told him impatiently as his muscles tensed up for the intense climb ahead. Daisy, Mario and Peach looked at him, each wondering something different.

He isn't really trying to impress Daisy this much is he? Mario bit his lip and tried to search for a way to console his younger brother but could not find any words to say. Sure it was his idea at first to pair Luigi up with Daisy. He had often found Luigi daydreaming while looking in the direction of Sarasaland. Whenever anything took place in Sarasaland, Luigi was first to go. So now, was this the climax? Was Luigi going to tell Daisy how he felt after the climb?

Luigi's going to great lengths right now to prove himself, what a brave man! Peach smiled as she watched Daisy look at Luigi confused and worriedly. See Daisy there is a man out there for you! And his name is Luigi! The man that everyone seems to forget! Oh, she thought, that wasn't too nice, now was it? Poor Luigi to have such names like that!

This is crazy he doesn't have to do this! Daisy wanted to go right over to Toad and forfeit. She didn't need Luigi to suffer just so she could prove herself better than Peach! But then there was the voice in her head. Maybe he is the brave man you thought of him as? Why not give him a chance to prove it? Heck why don't we prove ourselves a better couple than Mario and Peach? Yeah, she thought with a nod, let's do that.

"Let's go Luigi!" she smiled to him. "We can do this!"

He looked back at her and nodded. "Yes. We can do this!"

"START!"

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Daisy shouted up to Luigi who looked back at her and shook his head. Daisy sighed and rested her head against the mountain. "Can I have a quick break? I'm so tired!"

"But Daisy we have to win this!" Luigi shouted down to her, panicked by her willingness to give up.

"You're right, hey I'll lead now okay? Give you a break?" she asked. Luigi reluctantly nodded, knowing how stubborn she could be.

Daisy moved ahead of Luigi. She looked down to him and said "And don't you be looking up my dress!" Again Luigi nodded and decided to look at the snow as if it was the most interesting thing ever. "Mario and Peach are way ahead of us." She commented.

"Nothing but first place for them." Luigi muttered to himself.

"FINISH!"

"Oh dear…" Daisy whispered.

"Yeah. We lost." Luigi groaned in disappointment.

"No." Daisy shook her head and pointed to their left. "I mean those dark clouds up there. Luigi…They don't look very nice!" she told him worriedly.

Luigi looked over in her direction and nodded in agreement. A sharp wind passed by them mercilessly cold. A wall of snow soon followed the wind. Luigi took a chance and looked up at Daisy. Her dress was being pulled by the wind toward the west thankfully, so he couldn't see her undergarments. He was concerned though that Daisy wouldn't be able to hold on.

"It's going to be all right Daisy!" he called up to her. "I'm climbing up don't let-"

A strong gust of wind blew heavily onto them. Daisy, her hands numb by the snow lost their grip on the pickaxe and started to fall towards the ground far below. Luigi, his eyes wide and his heart pumping three times its normal speed, reached out and caught Daisy's hand, the other on his pickaxe.

She smiled gratefully up at him as he grinned down at her. It was amazing! He had actually made the catch! He rescued a princess! Too bad he didn't test his foothold properly. The added weight of the princess broke his foothold and both plunged downward.

* * *

**"Luigi! Luigi! Oh Luigi, wake up will you?"**

Luigi's eyes opened and he saw the blue eyes of the princess Daisy above him. His hand reached up to his head and he rubbed it. His hat was no longer there, blown of from the wind. He noticed Daisy's crown was also nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?" he asked her, still dazed. His left foot felt like it was being crushed and there was no feeling in his right arm at all as he tried to move it.

"You sprained your left foot and I think your right arm is broken." Daisy explained to him as she helped him sit up against the wall of the cave they were in. " My own feet are sprained but I did my best to drag you in here. It might have been a bad choice seeing how we're snowed in."

Luigi looked at the entrance. Sure enough all he saw was white snow. "Oh Luigi!" Daisy covered her rosy face with her gloved hands as tears escaped her eyes. "I knew I should have told Toad to forfeit us from the mini-game! You looked so worried when you heard we were playing cliffhangers! Please, please, please forgive me!"

Luigi blinked as he held his right arm. He smiled to her and shook his head. "I should be the one who's sorry. I was so stubborn. I wanted to prove to myself…Prove to you…that I could be just as brave as Mario. I…I've always liked you Daisy." He admitted.

"Really?" Daisy blushed brightly.

Luigi nodded, blushing as well. Daisy sat next to him, watching the breath escape her mouth and fade into nothing. "I've always liked you too. Us two? We're kind of like outcasts. I may be popular in my kingdom but world wise? Peach stands out more than I do. She has beauty, manners, and popularity, not to mention someone like Mario to depend on when she's in trouble. Peach told me that she loved Mario but has not told him yet."

The younger plumber looked at the floor of the cavern. Now what was he supposed to say that? Maybe he had spoken too much of what he felt? He was always afraid of being rejected by someone as popular as Daisy but listening to the confessions of her own self-doubt, she was strangely…just like him. Hidden in the shadow of someone greater.

* * *

"I don't get it! They should have been up here by now!" Mario sat in the helicopter that hovered above the mountain.

"Toad, you can't use the star magic to transport them back to the board?" asked Peach who sat beside Mario.

The tuxedo-clad Toad shook his head. "I can only use it if I knew where they were!" he replied. "Toadsworth, can't you fly the helicopter down the mountain?"

"No can do." Came his voice. "The winds are too strong. I'm struggling just to keep it from flying away. Princess, I'm afraid we'll have to return after the storm."

Peach's eyes swelled up in tears at the thought of her two friends being stuck on the mountain. Mario looked at her as her small hands clasped around his arm. She buried her head into his shoulder and started to cry quietly. The older Mario brother felt like he could cry too but his reputation forbade him from doing so. All he could do was help console the princess.

* * *

"You're shivering."

"No I'm not. You are."

Luigi frowned as Daisy was stubbornly refusing the offer of his shirt to keep her warm. "You're shivering and look. Your lips are blue!" he looked away from her, ashamed that he would not be able to do anything with a broken arm and a sprained foot. Or could he?

He stood up and limped his way over to the entrance of the cave. "Luigi what are you doing?" Daisy looked up at him, her arms still wrapped around her legs.

"By the time the storm has ended, we'll be frozen goomba treats. I don't plan on letting you die in here." He explained to her. That's right, he thought, if I'm going to the happy place, I'm going there as a hero and not a failure.

"Luigi…" she watched him use his one good arm to scoop out the snow. "You…"

He paused for a moment and looked over at her, his face full of blush. "I…I love you Daisy and as a plumber I don't have much to offer. However, at least allow me to get you out of here. Okay?"

Daisy smiled and limped herself over to the snow pile. "Only if you let me help." Luigi smiled back at her and together they started to dig themselves out. Luigi realized, as they dug themselves out, that he truly had found his soul mate. Daisy was someone he had always admired. She was outgoing while he was not. She was athletic while he was not.

When the pathway was cleared, Luigi and Daisy were faced with another setback. The climb down would be horrendous. Daisy feet were sprained and Luigi only had one working arm and leg. Looking down at the pickaxe that had fallen with them, he looked to Daisy whose hair was whipping in the wind.

"Hang on to my shoulders."

"What?" she asked startled. "But your ar-"

"Hang onto my shoulders." He repeated sternly but softly. Daisy complied and Luigi started his decent down.

Her head rested against his shoulders and she let out a squeak whenever Luigi stumbled or slipped. Each time he did so though, she could hear him mumbling to himself and nodding. She smiled and felt that her fate was in perfectly capable hands. The cold wind was numbing and Daisy could barely hold her eyes open.

"Luigi…" she whispered tiredly.

"Shh." He consoled her. "We're almost there. Look down can you see anything? Anyone?"

Daisy let her head roll off of Luigi's good arm and looked down at the ground. Her eyes widened as she spotted Mario, Peach, Toad and Toadsworth waving up at them. She waved down to them and laughed. "Luigi! You're going to make it! Just a little bit more and we're there!"

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Luigi's face brightened to the deepest shade of red. He swooned a little bit causing Daisy to worry. He lost his grip on the pickaxe and fell to the ground as Daisy caught the pickaxe and hung off of it. "Luigi!" she screamed.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, Luigi found himself in a hospital room. He was lying down on a bed and Daisy was beside him sleeping in a chair. She looked so beautiful like an angel, he thought as the sunlight from the window drifted down onto her body. "Daisy?" he called her name softly.

Daisy's eyes opened and she looked down at Luigi. "You're awake!" she got up off of her chair, not caring for her injuries, and hugged Luigi tightly as he sat up. "I'm so happy!" Tears flew from her eyes as she cried happily.

Luigi, having only one good arm, patted her on the back with it. "I was afraid we lost you when you fell. I'm sorry. I couldn't control myself then!" Daisy explained as she pulled away. "I got excited. Maybe a little too excited. I mean you did it! You saved the day! You saved the girl!"

Luigi blinked, looking into Daisy's blue eyes. He smiled and leaned forward and placed his lips shyly onto hers. Daisy's eyes widened in response but she complied and placed her hands on his shoulders. He pulled away and stroked Daisy's cheek softly. "Did I get the girl?" he asked, his face revealing all the insecurites he harboured deep within.

She smiled softly and nodded. "Yeah. You got the girl." Daisy replied and hugged him again tightly.

Mario and Peach stepped back away from the door and looked to each other with a smile of content on each other's faces. "Think things will be all right with them?" Mario asked Peach as they walked down the hallway.

Peach slipped her hand into Mario's, a golden ring on her left ring finger. "I think everything will be all right." she replied with asoft grin.


End file.
